Friday, December 5, 2014

Rock on Actors and TOP FIVE

Top Five is a new comedy/drama that was directed by, written by and stars Chris Rock. Trust me on this: He will now be called "filmmaker" by the same large group of Caucasian critics who panned his work in Pootie Tang and Head of State. In their reviews, they will upgrade him from being just a "comedian." Although millions of us who saw him in movies like Nurse Betty (with Morgan Freeman and the original Renee Zellweger) or 2 Days in New York and those who saw his Broadway acting debut knew that the performer was more than merely a guy who stood up onstage and told jokes. He is multi-talented. Chris Rock is a comedian, an actor, a writer and now a director.

Actors, especially actors here in New York City, don't really need critics to beat them up. They do pretty well beating themselves up with self-criticism about their performances. They are self-critical and they are brave enough to have hurled themselves into a profession that demands that you remove your self-consciousness. When you see Top Five, which I really hope you do when it opens December 12th, I want you to keep something in mind about actors when you see it.

The hot sauce scene.

There is at least one actor, I bet, who auditioned for that role, got a callback and wanted to kick himself because he did not book the role. He will see that scene in Top Five and say to himself, "Damn! That's what Chris Rock wanted?!?! I could've done that!" Mark my words.

The hot sauce scene.

And THAT is the life of the working class actor in New York City.

Chris Rock has some sharp, savvy comments on exclusion in the film industry. He hits a bullseye with his recent article in The Hollywood Reporter that got the banner "Chris Rock Pens Blistering Essay on Hollywood's Race Problem." It's worth reading. Go here:www.hollywoodreporter.com.

P.S. For you classic film fans, there's an element of Charlie Chaplin's 1936 Modern Times in one Top Five jail scene.

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About Me

The New York Times hailed Bobby Rivers as "a master interviewer with a gift for banter" on his VH1 celebrity talk show in the late 1980s. Bobby Rivers has been a prime time talk show host, an ABC News movie critic and entertainment news contributor, a syndicated game show host and a Food Network host. Whoopi Goldberg picked him to be on her Premiere Radio weekday morning show in 2006. He's acted in national TV commercials and played a recurring comedy character for The Onion. A longtime SAG-AFTRA union member, he's proud to have been the first African-American to get a talk show on VH1 and also to be one of the few black performers who's been a weekly movie critic and film historian on network TV. On VH1, some of his guests were Kirk Douglas, Norman Mailer, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Ben Kingsley, Paul McCartney, Carlos Santana, Omar Sharif, Patrick Swayze, Sally Field, cartoon voiceover legend Mel Blanc and Whoopi Goldberg. Bobby Rivers grew up in South Central L.A., graduated from a high school in Watts and got a B.A. from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.